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Matt EmersonApril 22, 2014

Writing in today's Wall Street Journal, Josh Mandel says "it is becoming increasingly hard to defend the vanishing of shop class from the curriculum." According to Mandel: 

Too many young people have four-year liberal-arts degrees, are thousands of dollars in debt and find themselves serving coffee at Starbucks or working part-time at the mall. Many of them would have been better off with a two-year skilled-trade or technical education that provides the skills to secure a well-paying job.
 

A good trade to consider: welding. I recently visited Pioneer Pipe in the Utica and Marcellus shale area of Ohio and learned that last year the company paid 60 of its welders more than $150,000 and two of its welders over $200,000. The owner, Dave Archer, said he has had to turn down orders because he can't find enough skilled welders.

$150,000? Not bad. See the rest of Mandel's op-ed here. 

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